Talkin’ Cowboys: Camp Superlatives

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He is a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.

Cowboys.

This he's Talking Cowboys Training live from.

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Course at the Star in Frisco.

Six seconds dot TI twenty touchdown.

And now your hosts Isaiah Stanback, Patrick Walker, Josh Rodriguez and Kyle Yeomans.

It's a Thursday edition of Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas, in the SWBC studios. Welcome in, everybody. It is the final official Talking Cowboys of Training Camp twenty twenty five. Bye, it is done.

It is sea.

The preseason is almost over as well, and we will preview the final preseason match up.

I have to say really quick, Lana Falcons, Yes, what's that? Sorry?

Sorry, you want to just like interrupt my I do? I do because I'm concerned. Patrick looks a little pale this morning.

I was getting there.

Oh you're looking over this morning. I like the impression there. It's a pretty good show.

Returning to the Talking Thank You Boys set for the first time in god knows how long. It's been one of the best hosts we've ever seen an high riser in this industry.

Thank you, mister Nick Harris of the fort Worth starting.

What's up me, It's great to be back. Don't tell anybody. This is my favorite show.

Around these parts, round these parts, yeah, around these parts. So I missed this. I miss this little setting. I'm sure Chris Bean does not miss me showing up at nine oh one. But this is this is this is my This is how you get I'm good. I'm good at home.

See beams good, We're all good. I'm good.

Hap We're happy to have.

You, buddy, Thank you man.

I missed the dynamic. I miss chatting up with you. I missed the notes and newts every morning face Josh, I mean the eye candy of talking cowboys.

That's why I'm on the show.

The only rule of this is is if you're late, you got to bring coffee and donuts.

Oh, especially on Halloween.

Noted, where's the donuts.

That's the big thing. Yeah, especially on Halloween. Sorry, guys, that was an actual thing that happened. I got stuck in traffic and the I had gotten donuts beforehand, because I was like, oh, I'm good, like I brought these. I went and bought donuts at this little shot by my house. But then traffic was the worst traffic I've ever seen in my life, Like on my way in, I ended up being like fifteen minutes late, but I

It's like chance late. Yeah.

He thinks I did it on purpose, but it was actually a pre emptive donut run that ended up in traffic, as opposed to like me being nice and saying, oh, I was already stuck in traffic, Like we love you, Kyle.

You were just trying to head your bet.

We get it. That's what it was. That's what it was.

You can't be the guy that's late that didn't bring me.

Yeah, exactly. But yeah, Nick Harris four Orth Star Telegram is back.

He was at open practice last night, Cowboys wrapping up training camp here at the Start in Frisco. A couple fun practices to cap things off. I saw really some really good stuff last night. Ceedee Lamb had an incredible grab back at the end zone.

And to that point on dallascowboys dot Com, Kyle Yeomans was killing it on the broadcast. Thank you and on a twenty one thank you. Not to mention, but I just love the presentation that you guys had. I know we do it every year, but yeah, like Guessterday was particularly really great.

Thank you.

The biggest thing about those broadcasts is you can't show anything because of the coaching staff restrictions.

I felt like you could show more this year.

Uh kind of okay.

Then previous years.

There were previous years where there were no numbers on the jerseys, no numbers.

And names the jerseys.

And we were doing this broadcast and we were at at and T Stadium, and we were up on the third level trying to decipher who we knew who CD Lamb was, Todown, we knew who Dak guy, we knew we knew who like the big name guys were.

But outside of that, it was.

Like insane pass breakup by Dak Prescott.

I think I have no idea who that is. It's available online, right, yeah, oh y poadcast, So go back and watch it. If you didn't watch it. There was some good stuff last night that we were able to show, but they were still they had we had to make sure every everything was tight from a camera angle and so there were a couple of times where we weren't even showing the ball and I was just like, well, can't talk about what's happening on the field currently.

Yeah.

Nate looked at me after we were done, He's like, we were a little quiet last night. I was like, I couldn't talk about what was on the field the same way.

That's fair, But then again it is also open to the public, So there's just a fine line between all of that, right, It's all a balance.

Yeah, it's all a balance.

But it is available online if you missed it last night. We had some good conversation, for sure. The CD Lamb catch, I thought his second foot was out of bounce, uh huh, And then we went back and replayed it and then of course he was totally in bounds.

It was an incredible play, a.

Beam in the back.

It was a push off, it was definitely and he got flagged for it, but it was.

It was still cool man, But I thought his foot was What were your thoughts Nick last night? As we got into the second open practice here.

You know, Brian Schottenheimer on what is what is today Today's Thursday on Tuesday, Uh, he said that he wanted two practices that were ass kickers, and so I think, uh, you know, the physicality was certainly ramped up these these last two days.

I thought it was a little bit more last night.

You had more bodies on the ground as a result, but I thought, you know, the physicality was definitely ramped up in a positive way, in a positive way because I didn't see anybody leave the field yesterday. Luke scoon Maker did leave on Tuesday night, but I didn't see anybody depart the field last night.

So I think overall, you know, they got what they wanted out of these two practices.

And I caught Schottenheimer coming off the field and I was like, so it was was it an ass kicker? He just laughed, He's like, yeah, Well, I was like all right, And so, you know, I think that's just what they're looking for.

You know.

The physicality is something that he's preached all training camp. And you know, when the when the Rams came into Oxnard for that joint practice, I think they they kind of got hit in the mouth a little bit, and the physicality I think probably took on a little bit more intention after that. And so you've you've seen that here in the last last couple of weeks as far as them, you know, trying to be a little bit more, you know, thudding and hitting. But it's been good to see,

I was curious, and you guys would know better than me. Why was Doron Bland not out there? I know he was, he was stretching, but I didn't see him in any of the drills or anything thing like that.

Wasn't in pads, wasn't in pads. Was there a reason why?

Probably an undisclosed thing he's dealing with, but I wouldn't consider it anything major on.

The d A D list again, yeah yeah.

That one up to Yeah, that one up to the interpretation.

Three time D list yet yeah all day, uh.

But uh yeah, at one time, yeah, The big thing for for Bland is if there was gonna be something major, I feel like it would have been a bigger storyline for sure.

And he was there.

I mean, he was at practice, so that was the only thing that was really concerning to me. But I really loved specifically the blitz period and the red zone period yesterday. I mean, granted, that's that's whenever like practice really started, you know what I mean. Of course you have your special team's drills and all of that going for the first like ten to fifteen minutes of practice.

Love special teams drills, man.

Yeah, it's it's great. It's just riveting television.

Sure, what's your favorite the punting or the kicking, it's all of it.

Oh, okay, cool special teams.

I don't know, man, Brian Inger hit some some gnarly douns in those punts. Yeah, he's a boomer, not in that way.

We were up there.

Of course, it's the same box that like we do Frisco isd games in and Nicky Eatman looked over, he's any of those high school kids from Frisco punting like that, And I was like, not in a million years. I was like, sorry, but no, they're kind of like Brian angers and dudes.

They don't have bangers, they have dangers.

Yeah, that's true.

What were some of your takeaways from last night watching those red zone and those blitz periods.

The blitz period was fascinating to me, and like of course you guys breaking it down was really fascinating. But in terms of like first team second team, I really noticed that Dak was just on one yesterday.

He had a lot of zip on the ball.

He was getting the ball out early to Ferg I mean, obviously relying on his security blanket out there.

He had a great scene through yesterday.

I felt that timing was off in some areas more often than others. With the second team, Joe Milton, I think you started off with a really good scramble and then he was kind of starting his aired passes, you know, throwing behind guys like Jalen Cropper. He was dead to rights on a corner blitz yet again by Izzy Israel mccuamou, but he had to go good throat of hold in at one point and then he kind of got into

I was like, Okay, he's picking on to something here.

What did you think about Milton in yesterday's practice.

Yeah, I thought he was a lot more clean, and he was a lot more clean on Tuesday night as well as far as being consistent. You know, there were still some times where that bad footwork is showing up.

Bit further than you know he intends to.

And that's such a big intention that him and quarterbacks coach Steve shimco Brian Shot, they're all trying to work on with him, and it's gonna take time.

That's that's the that's the reality of it.

You know, you hope that you don't need Joe Milton for an extended period of time this year because I'm not sure he's going to be ready for that. But if he can clean up these little footwork things, I think he does have potential moving forward.

But you know, don't tell him he throws the ball hard.

By the way, that was what was that?

That was like an agro sort of response from him yesterday, And I'm tired of talking about it.

I'm gonna say something random cowboy jo he did.

Said, he literally did say, let's clear the air. I don't throw the ball hard. We just kind of like look at each other like yeah, yeah, yeah, facts.

Facts.

Meanwhile, it's a sonic.

But like every time he works one my favorite.

Broken like fifteen fingers at camps.

Yeah, my favorite tweet tell hundred Licky that about.

The whole scenario is like, if you need somebody to throw the ball seventy five yards, Joe Milton can throw it seventy five yards. If you need somebody to throw the ball forty five yards, Joe Milton can throw.

It seventy five yards. It's true. I mean that's what it looks like. Even last night when he released the ball.

To Jalen Brooks, and we were sitting up there in the booth calling the practice.

You can hear me on the broadcast. I went, wow, like it just it, It zips out of his hand.

He has just the arm talent. I get it, I really do. Everything else is tough. That's the and so I get why there's there are NFL teams. Cowboys, of course are the number one interest here, but there are NFL teams that would be interested in Milton outside of the Cowboys because of the possibility there, because he does he has an unreal arm talent.

But like you said, tying into the footwork.

And that was a conversation I had with him early in camp was what are you working on after practice? What are you doing in your spare time and through your walkthroughs? He stood after in ox Nard a couple times after walkthroughs as well and.

Was working with some receivers. What are you working on there?

He said, I want to tie the timing of my receivers to my feet. He said, I want to try and piece this together and piece my footwork together to where it's steady and it's consistent. We haven't seen that consistency. We've seen some flashes. We've seen the right throws. Like you said, the timing this week I think has been the best out of any time point in camp. And maybe that's just a byproduct of reps. Maybe that's a byproduct of the system and learning the playbook a little

I should say it that way.

Then we can talk about, Okay, is he ready for a quarterback two scenario or is this a situation where we need to go somewhere else.

And to your point you just alluded to it too, is the timing. I think he's working on that obviously as he's going along. And that's why Brighton Schenheimer wants him to have more snaps and get the bulk of the snaps in preseason. But you see it a time and time again, and I think Babelffenberg was it on Twitter that broke down his play versus Will Greer and like getting uh, I think it was just an out route to Cropper.

It was the scene.

It was it was it was a seam sixteen to.

Eighteen yards and that's where you want to hit it, and he broke it down perfectly. This is where you want to place the ball. And Joe Milton missed that timing window and it was glaring and it's obvious. And then you compare it to Will Greer, who did the exact same play in the fourth quarter and he nailed it.

So let's say today, right, Dak Prescott's down for four weeks.

Now, let's not say that.

Let's let's just say that that's the reality.

I hate saying.

So you need do you throw out Will Creer? Do you throw out Joe Milton?

I will agree I would throw out I think I'm probably throwing out Greer too at this point, and I think the comp staff would too. I think, and I think something very important that Brian Schenheimer's emphasized multiple times, like, we have.

Not named a backup quarterbacks. We have not named a backup quarterback.

And so whenever we follow up with okay, then why is Milton getting all these reps? He says, we need to learn more about Joe Milton. We know about Will Greer, which is understanding of Joe Milton, so I understand that, uh philosophy here in the preseason.

Gosh, I had another point that I was gonna make just completely. You know, I'm not give you more, I'll give you time here.

The one thing that plays off of that, the only person that doesn't benefit from the or actually there's a couple people that don't benefit, but one person that doesn't benefit from those reps for Milton his career because he wants to get in touch, he wants to get in rhythm, he wants to be there. The other people that might not have it is as Joe Milton's trying to figure it out. It makes it tougher for these wide receivers and for these pass catchers and for this offense to

Are you able to evaluate guys deeper on the roster like.

A tree Shahn Holden or a Josh Kelly or a Ryan Flinoy or a Jalen Cropper. Not really, it's but you do have the practices to kind of supplement that. But in a preseason setting, in a preseason game setting, you don't get the good look because you're having to wait on your quarterback to try and figure it out.

Absolutely, and this is something that Hole brought up after the game. Check her out on Twitter. She's amazing at it breaking down the film afterwards. But what she said, particularly when we're talking even in the booth, about how it's like, oh, he's calling a vanilla game, like he's calling a vanilla offense on offense and defense. Right, But

But again to shot Number's point.

About we don't know enough about him, he needs to be out there, he needs to take the snaps because he needs his experience.

He has had one game basically in the NFL.

Let me throw another hypothetical at you on Friday, he has the same reform as he's had these first couple of preseason games. Do you maybe look to maybe trade a late Day three pick to go get somebody next week, a veteran that.

Is trusted, A trusted veterans.

How trusted we talking trusted back up?

A trusted backup?

Yeah, I would The one pause I have on that is that you've done that the last couple of years with the Lance and done it, but you've done it with projects.

Hence the dilemma.

Yeah, I would like if I'm going to do it, I would like to have a couple of years of contract there, so maybe multiple years on his contract and whatever that may look like.

But yes, but only because and the.

Only reason we talk about the backup quarterback position as much as we do in the media and around this this Cowboys beat is because they've needed it the last few years. Out of the last five, they've needed the backup quarterback position. And that's that's sort of a knock on Dak Prescott, but it's the conversation we've always had. If Dak Prescott's healthy, great, but healthy is not always a given right. And so when we're looking at Joe

At this point, I'm not willing to give up any more capital on a backup quarterback situation at this point. And that but that's right now because the problem hasn't presented itself exactly.

Like if you're six and one and you need four games, it gets me a lot different then exactly.

See.

But then the price goes up and instead of a six or seventh round pick, we're talking about a fourth or a fifth round pick to go get you a guy if you're.

Going to make a deal, and that sucks.

If we're going to make a deal and that sucks, and go get a quarterback that's trusted, that can take over this.

Team and ultimately take you to the playoffs and have some success.

But I don't want to rely on that problem occurring. I want to at least for now. Yeah, you want to be banking on the fact that back on the fact that you're okay and deal with that problem when it comes. And like you said, the price is going to go up. But at that point, you know you might be desperate enough to do it.

You're already in a spot at that.

Exactly exactly, so I'm not willing to invest any more draft capital into that.

All right, let's take a break here on Talking Cowboys.

When we come back, let's turns to the positivity side. I just spilt my coffee all over myself, So this is what's happening behind the scenes.

Uh.

When we come back here on Talking Cowboys, let's talk positive, little superlative action from training camp.

We're gonna give you our Training Camp Awards.

Offensive Defensive Players of Camp are MVP Rookie of the Year, and we'll start things off by most Improved when we come back with.

More Talking Cowboys right after this.

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To the Talking Cowboys, Back your own Talking Cowboys, presented by Black Rifle Coffee Company, live from the Star in Frisco, Texas, the official Coffee of the Dallas Cowboys, alongside Josh Rodriguez, Nick Harris in the building. It really is good having you back, Nick, miss Joy Show. I know a lot of fans have been able to follow you throughout your journey from here to the break to media mash and all over Fort Worth Star Telegram got Chris Beam in

I like it.

Camp is over a month worth.

Of practices, both split through Oxnard, California and Frisco, Texas have now come to a close. So I want to start with most improved from the beginning to the end of camp. It does include the preseason games. I want the whole picture here. Okay, who's the most improved.

Off of this roster for the Dallas Cowboys in twenty twenty five.

This feels to me like a second.

Year award, right, second year jump.

A second year jump.

I like it.

I know where you're going with this.

I mean, how could you not.

I mean Marshall Neeland could be on the list, you could say, and not a second year person.

You could say.

Dimon Clark could be on this list as far as improved last year over this year. But I'm going Maris lea Fais. I love what he's done. I love the size that he's put on since last year. He's just absolutely giving an attitude on the defense that we've desperately needed since last season, since of the past three or

You'd love to see.

It for me, Mary Cleefaul at this point, I like it.

If you had told me at the beginning of training camp that Tyler Geiiton would go down with a knee injury early on and somebody would have to come into his place for the rest of training camp, I would have given you about six names before I would have gotten to Nate Thomas.

Yeah, so that's gonna be the one for me.

Just more of an overall offseason picture for him, but specifically at training camp, he's been a huge surprise for me stepping into that left tackle role. Now there's still some green to him, and there's still some things, you know, he's clearly got to learn, and boy, you hope he doesn't have to go out there week one against Philadelphia

No.

I like that a lot.

And I think when you put it the way you did, where Nate Thomas was on IR for much of his rookie season, the entire of it, he wasn't even a part of these practices. This is really a training camp for him to find out how to play NFL football. And then he's thrown into the left tackle spot and he's done a good job. Is he NFL ready to

I think he's ready for and you need out of a swing tackle.

Absolutely absolutely, And so yeah, I agree with you on both of those.

Those are great. Just to keep the names rolling, I'm going to say Damoon Clark. Yeah.

Dmone entered this offseason unknowing or without knowing what his.

Future possibly in this franchise would be, and a.

New staff, new coaching staff that he did like, and we've had conversations where.

He says I feel like I can play free.

Again in this system. Didn't really fit in Mike Zimmer's system. He's put together a great camp. We put a rank them on dallascowboys dot com of the top twenty players of Dallas Cowboys training camp.

He was top fifteen. He was number fourteen on the list.

So to see him have some success, to see him play well in the preseason games, and to continue to take steps forward after possibly being off of the roster and because of the contract situation, it might have been easier for this team to let go of de mone Clark saved themselves about three million in cash. Instead, he's on the roster squarely and he'll be in the rotation at linebacker. I think he's taken a big step forward.

From a guy that was totally lost in Mike Zimmer's scheme. For him to come back after that and like still gain that confidence and translated onto the practice field, not necessarily as much for the preseason games, but I feel like that's coming.

I think that's coming for him, and.

It may not be like a most improved he may have always had this, it's just because we've seen flashes of de Moone Clark.

Being great in the past.

It's piecing it all together in the situation that he had in front of him, because other guys that were under pressure going into the training camp practices weren't necessarily as successful.

Demone Clark did his job and he came in and had a good camp.

Honorable mention Sam Williams just because one's coming back from injury and yesterday the speed that he has he tracked down Dak Prescott on a bootleg and just was in his hip pocket. That was a sack for It was totally a sack. And Sam Williams looks like he's going to be a dude. I didn't want to give him Most Improved, but I think it needs to be mentioned how impressive he's been.

There's some people out there on the Twitter sphere that are trying to not include Sam Williams on their final fifty three.

That's crazy.

Blows my mind, that's crazy.

They haven't blutched my practice exactly.

I mean took it out of my mouth, all right.

Going on to Rookie of the year in training camp, who was your standout rookie?

Then come on, come on, you answer, come easy answer. Donovan as Aku for me.

For listeners of the Draft show, this is not a surprise.

Yeah, I you know, I'm a big, big fan of this kid, and you know, early on at camp I felt like, you know, he wanted to throw everything that he has in his arsenal out there and show what he can do. And so you saw the bend, the athleticism, the flash off the edge, and you saw him getting into the backfield. You saw him dropping back in coverage to taking running backs out of the backfield and running with him step for step.

You saw all of that early in camp.

And it was funny because we were talking to Matty Eberflus and he was talking about his his development, and he's like, you.

Know how, He's like, it's it's when rookies come in.

It's kind of like potty training a baby, and you know you got to go through like step at a time, step at a time. It's like when as Araku got here, like he had it all figured out. So let's think of the back of my head.

So I was like, so he was. He was pooping in the.

Toilet, all right, and so he's like, now we're like really trying to work on the things that we know he can be better at. And so if you watch these first two preseason games and you go back and look at as Iraku, I do not think it's a

Yeah, because what was Micah's sack total?

Twelve his rookie year, I think, and so if you get anywhere close to that, let's just imagine he gets nine, he gets right under the ten sacks in the double digit sack category. I would be ecstatic about that edition, absolutely ecstatic if he got there. And honestly, tackles for loss were more of an impressive number that he had last year because what he had he had seven or twenty tackles for loss with Boston College. He had sixteen

That's an incredible rookie year. And you can build on top of that.

Micah parcels on the other side, notwithstanding who knows what his numbers will be, that's one of the top sack rushing duo in all.

Of you take back to Sam Williams's rookie year, he had four sacks and he finished fifth and defensive Rookie of the Year voting, which is crazy to think about, that is why.

And then last year's defensive.

Rooie the Year, Jerry Versusly had four and a half sacks, So I mean, wow, that was more is an impact on the run game and his quarterback threshers and things like.

That, which that would be welcome to I would be okay with that too.

So that's that's what I'm saying, Like, if he can get to like six and a half seven sacks, he's in the conversation.

This passworst group is going to be exciting once we're full go oh for sure, it's gonna be fun to watch. And like, once we're finally like live bullets out there, it's gonna be awesome for me. Just to change up the conversation a little bit.

But you agree with me, I agree.

I have three for three across the board. It would be as a optic, but just.

To bring in another name as far as Rookie of the Year goes a Rookie of Training Camp, I have to say Shamar James, because as we've gone along, I wasn't.

A big draft expert. I didn't necessarily.

See him in college and watch a ton of college, but I just kept seeing fifty out there. I just kept seeing fifty flying all over the place. And the guy that wasn't quick to necessarily diagnose the play, but quick to get to the play. If he didn't see it right away, if he didn't diagnose it, he was gonna get there no matter what because he has that speed. Once he's able to actually diagnose what's going on before everybody else, it's gonna be insane. Like this guy's going

And that happened a lot of Florida. Because for somebody that watched the tape, I mean, you can agree with this too. Diagnosing was never his thing. The athleticism was his thing. And would it translates to the NFL level. It looks like it's translating just fine.

It's translating just fine because of his natural gifts at just being incredibly fast and getting people down to the ground.

Yeah, granted we haven't seen.

A whole lot of that in practice obviously, but you're seeing in preseason games now and just seeing him fly across the board is it's really encouraging and a guy that you need. And we've talked about how much of a strength so far linebackers have been for this team. He's definitely one of them.

We're going to look back in a couple of years and look at this three draft stretch that they've had where they've gone to Marven, Overshown, Mayer, Leah f Alshamar James, and we're gonna be like, damn, that was a run.

Yeah.

Hopefully, especially with Demo coming back to he stays healthy, that could be a fun core for the future.

I'm gonna do a deep blue on that in like ten years.

Yeah, it'll be the twenty Yeah. The linebacker, Yeah, the linebacker. Back to backers. Uh, that's good, right, that's good.

Back back to back down.

Great, All right, let's move on to who's George?

You have time, I said as Roku, Okay, yeah, let's let's move on to defensive player of the year in training camp or defensive player of the camp.

I should say. I'll start with you, Josh, you got Kyer. That's a good one.

I mean, how could you, how can you not be impressed but needed him, you needed him desperately, and Granton when the trade happened, I wasn't like, yeah, you know what I mean, Like you saw the AFC Championship gave me, You're like, oh no, yeah. But since camp started, he has been the best corner that we've had.

I would say I would go back to ot as even.

Since ot I agree, yeah, I wouldn't argue that. Uh, just he's he's a flash out there. I love seeing how he's able to just just past breakups have been insane. He did one yesterday against CD, who's a nice comeback route that he just has fun eliminated. I love seeing that, love the attitude that he brings for me easily.

It's got your just to switch it up. I would go Elam as well, but just to switch it up.

And this is a guy that you know, I think has just had a really strong training camp, maybe has flown under the radar a little bit of how good of a camp he's had. He's playing confident in the system, he's playing well as Millie Cooker, and I like what he's put together from a camp perspective because to be completely honest, completely transparent.

Going into this camp, I was like, man, when can you get rid of these two safeties?

Yeah, like it's it's you know, you got Wilson on the books for one more year, you got Hooker on the books for two more years. It just felt like you could be so much better at the position group if you look back at the defense's last couple of years. But they have both proved me wrong, and so Hooker especially, I think he's he's looked really good under this eberflu system.

I agree, And if I had to rank it defensively, it would be Elam Hooker.

And then the guy that I'm about to name as kind of my extra Ohsa, Diggy Zooa.

Really I thought.

He's been great. I think he's been great.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

Especially you talk about yesterday blowing up practice. Yesterday, he was really good.

There are times where he has disappeared a little bit, but it's practice.

It's tough in these environments.

Yeah, and that's the.

Thing is you're gonna see ups and downs from the trenches at different points throughout camp. I thought consistently he was the best interior defensive lineman that should be the case with the money that he's getting in the type

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Welcome back into Dear Doctor, the show where I answer life's questions with an ice cold can of doctor Pepper. Sheila, let's hear from my next caller.

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Back here on Talking Cowboys. This portion of the show is brought to you by in Visa Line, the official Smile of the Dallas Cowboys.

We're all smiles.

As training camp has come to a close, it's time to get back into regular season talk pretty soon. Alongside Nick Harris, Josh Rodriguez, Chris Beam in the back, I'm Kyle Yeoman's let's get into offensive Player of the Year.

We've given our player camp. Yeah, player of Camp.

Sorry.

Uh, We've done the most improved player, We've done the defensive player of Camp, We've done the Rookie of Camp, and now offensive player of Camp.

I'll let you start, Josh, darn it, dude.

And this is I'm kind of thinking this as what the DPOY voting is at the end of the year. Like usually there's a different offensive player, the different Player of the Year as opposed to the MVP.

You can double it up if you want to, but really it's a yeah, I don't want to scrap it seed.

Thing because I know you guys are gonna go off and I don't want to steal this from anybody. So I'll just pick sort of the standard, the gold standard of the Cowboys offense currently, and that's Ceedee lamb mm.

I mean, what are we doing here?

He did have a great camp, He really did.

He excellent camp, And seriously, that is that is who your offense starts and ends with. It runs through him one A and it's solidified. I kind of wish I could touch on one B, but I feel like that might come up here in the segment. Yeah, there might be one there too, But Ceedee Lamb. He's the gold standard of your cowboys.

Yeah, I'm going with the guy.

He had the most receptions of any pass catcher in training camp and has really added a big time element to this, to this offense.

It's not George Picktts, it's Cavante Terrapin.

Oh, that's a good one.

I'm taking Avante.

I don't disagree that Dermi.

He added offensive element that he has provided to this system. If it can translate into the regular season, watch out, I'm serious, watch out. You talk about what he's been able to do from lining up in the slot, lining up outside, lining up as as a running back as well, and getting carries. It's been it's been really cool to see him him kind of finally put it together on the offensive side.

Of the ball.

And you get why he's got that six million dollar price tag. Now, you know you can't just be a returner with that kind of with that kind of money, so you know they're there. They have added an increased effort to get him involved offensively and that really manifested a training camp.

I like it. And remember we've talked about it on this show before.

Josh, the conversations that shot he had even before becoming head coach was we need to get Turpin involved.

More, and that's why you extended more. That's why you extended him.

Absolutely, That's why he's here, and that's why when Schottenheimer was hired as head coach, he had a plan in place to get Turpin.

Involved and they did a lot.

And you mentioned the receptions there, Nick, I think that's an interesting point because he was out there constantly and they were trying to give him the ball constantly. I think I tweeted two or three times while I was out there, like they are getting Turp in the football.

They're getting it to him in space.

Whether it's in the flat as a screen over the middle of the field, didn't matter. They were getting the football to nine and he was running with it.

There are scheming plays for one Comante Turpan, and that is apparent. That's why they extended him, and you saw that in flashes.

Last season.

Obviously had his best season overall last season, which was returning the ball right as a kick returner, as a punt returner. But you see that, and I don't think the offense or just the coaching staff necessarily didn't do a great season, a great job last season of involving him in the offense. I mean, you saw him run a few times. You saw a couple of passes to him that ended up in touchdowns. But to me, it wasn't a conscious effort towards like this is the fastest man in the NFL.

K I of loves that call.

I love that, Yeah, I do love that call.

And you're not scheming plays to get this guy the ball. He's not the best receiver that we have, but you have to get the ball in his hands no matter what.

And that's what it feels like they're doing.

I love it. And he's gonna have to try and find what he is.

That's why they call him that, dude, Why they call him that?

Why they do it? Gosh, you do That's just show, you know, that's just them.

It's the torpedo guy, stop it beam stop.

I actually love the Torpedo's It's it's.

A great name.

But Turpey Turpy Speed Speed is a talking Cowboys staple. O.

G It's we're the only show that does it.

And if you say Turpy Turpey speed Speed, then we know they're.

Last year what uh when Nick It went up to the Turpey. He's like, he's got a nickname for Turpy Turby speed speak. Come on, was like, yeah, he loved it, like great, But now every time they want to play by, Twitter blows up.

That is true.

I get comments on her my posts whenever Turpin doesn't like Turbet turbot speed speed at Josh wr You're darn right.

Your darn Tuton, dude.

It's the best. It's the best.

I'm gonna there's a point I'm gonna make on going into the MVP conversation. You said cdee Lamb for offensive player of camp, you said Cavante Turpin.

I'm gonna say George Pickens. Yeah, just because again.

Added element to this offense, contested ball downfield, exactly what you've missed and what you've needed in this passing game for quite some time. I'm gonna say Pickens.

There.

I would rather say Ceedee Lamb in this conversation, but just to keep it going.

Can I add an offensive player that maybe didn't get talked about enough as having a.

Pretty solid camp.

Yeah?

No, Moving on, Terrence Steele, I thought Terror Steel had a good camp, Okay.

Not an MVP yor offensive player exact camp exactly.

I just thought he had a good camp, and I think it's it's definitely a point of optimism going into the year.

I like, I love to hear it.

Yeah, and he was steady too.

He had that little hiccup early with the ankle or was it an ankle or shoulder ankle? I thought it was an ankle, missed a couple of practices right back in.

It had no problem.

So I agree with you there going into MVP conversation.

I mean, who's your MVP?

You just said it in a way, Oh yeah, in a way. You listed three wide receivers that are having excellent camp.

I did.

Who's getting them the ball?

Yeah? Who's throwing them the football?

Willy Wonka and Chat is gonna He's gonna blow a gasket, But it's uh, it's Dak Prescott.

What are we doing?

Yeah?

What are we doing?

You ever heard of wins above replacement in baseball?

Explain this to me.

War so war.

Is an analytic used in baseball that it puts together the amount of impact that a certain player has at their position group and it takes into effect how much their production as a team would drop off without that player in the lineup. And there have been some great players with really high wars throughout their their baseball career. The wins above replacement for Dak Prescott and training Camp

I'll just go see that's fair, That's okay.

Wow, Dak hate on Dallas.

Was no, no, at all. I did think Dak had a fine camp. I mean, he only had the two interceptions in pads. I thought that was really important towards, you know, his turnover progression, because those numbers were starting to get a little wonky before he got hurt last year.

So yeah, Dak is for sure a service.

It's pretty impressive in practice to only throw two picks and pads. Yeah, I mean, I know they're doing things and they're trying to do a lot of passing reps without pads on, But in pads, you're trying to fit a football into a tight window. You're trying to force it a couple different times into windows you wouldn't necessarily

Yeah, but I feel like you're responsible for that.

I know it might be.

I don't know, we're all jerks, but but I do think that's that's pretty impressive.

All right.

Cowboys Falcons On Friday, seven o'clock kickoff, six o'clock countdown to kick off from AT and T stadium, Nick, what are you looking for in the final preseason game.

The Ben Denucci revenge game.

He's signed to the Falcons this week.

Just get me to week one, man.

I am The last preseason game on Saturday completely changed my opinion about an eighteen game season, because if it means we take away a preseason game, I'm all, I'm all, You're down, But no, for real, there's a couple of position battles that I think, you know, Friday is going to be a big determining factor in you know, you think about this RB two situation. I think Javonte Williams is pretty much penciled in as a starter. Who's going to be behind him? I think that's still up in

That could be big time.

He has the only receiving touchdown from Joe Milton in this preseason and he's had a couple of big time receptions. Show some value in the block run blocking game as well on the defensive side of the ball, the slot corners. But you know is going to be keym on Hall, Zion Childress, Israel mcwhalma, even though mcwamah has gotten some a lot of reps at safety. But I'm curious to see who comes out of that battle on top. There's some fun ones still still to be you know, evaluated.

I agree with.

He's got some of the best hands that I've seen.

And he's been consistent every day. He's shown up night, made a great play last night in the end zone. But from a special team's perspective, he's still learning, and Jalen Brooks is a top five special teams player on this roster. Jalen Brooks is going to be that last guy before Treyshawn Holden, and I would say Ryan Flinoy would be that last.

Guy before Trey Shawn Holding as well.

So but I you know, theoretically that last spot is still up for grabs, especially now that Mingo is going on IR theoretically to start the season. You know that's going to open up a spot for at least one guy. But yeah, I'm curious to see what happens with these position battles man.

Absolutely, I'm particularly running back and how we've sort of discussed the three that you're going to have full four if you count lipkey. Shouts to Nick Harris for the weak love. But yesterday and the day before here at first goes training camp after do sort of got over that hamstring injury. I love what I've seen from him so far. Yesterday he had a really good practice. I don't know that he makes this team, but I want

You know what it kind of reminds me of was when Will Greer had his like going away party in twenty twenty three, and it was like, look, man, you're out of here after this, like.

But here's your shryout after it. So I Spon just goes out there and runs for like one hundred and sixty yards.

I would love that.

I would genuinely love that because I would be incredible. I love him to write about. Please.

I want the best for him because I really do believe that he will. He will figure some things out and contribute in a lot of ways. And I mean, just if we had more of a receiving running back situation, I think that would be great. But that's just not our offense at the moment. And hopefully he shows out maybe a practice squad situation, but I really hope he has a great game.

They asked me that question last night on the broadcast, where does Deuce Vaughan fit on this roster? I was like, I don't know if he does, and it's just because of the room that they have. You're either going to keep two rookies, or you're gonna keep two veterans, and

Blue and MafA. To try and grow into those spots.

I just don't know where running back another running back fits into that, especially.

With his skill set keep lip key and yeah, with.

His current skill set. He had an incredible practice last night.

It was always good to hear the fans kind of chanting Duce and getting them in there.

This is the guy you want to root for.

Yeah, yeah, I hope he does go off in the in the matchup, and if it's not here, I hope he lands somewhere great and has an incredible career.

It just doesn't look like it's gonna happen.

You gonna throw one more question on and say before we get one more, we're trying to extend the show, you know, real quick, gotta go all right.

I'm then you got ten minutes left all right, that's it for Talking Cowboys.

Chris Beam is kicking us off the air because he thinks he has more important things to do.

When we come back on Monday, we will wrap up the preseason. Hopefully we'll have Isaiah.

I know Isaiah is doing Good Morning Football next week, but he is currently on the couch watching from home. All the best wishes Isaiah. Gilbert gets our comment of the day. He said, has Isaiah been placed on ir or is he on pup? Best wishes for speedy recovery.

He's just on pup. Don't worry.

He'll be back very very soon. I n fi yeah, he'll be back very quickly. For Nick Harris in his return to Talking Cowboys. For Josh Rodriguez, Chris Beam in the back, I'm Kyle Yeoman saying so long from Talking Cowboys. Do the chopper again it get back into it. See you next week with more Talking Cowboys.

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Production of Dallascowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.

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